Christmas at Mom and Dad K's

A few nights later, on Monday night, we went over to Mom and Dad K's for Christmas with the immediate family. Everyone was there - the four of us, plus Mom and Dad, Paul and Angela, Matt and Gina. We had a delicious dinner first, our traditional appetizer dinner. It was SO GOOD! After dinner it was time for opening presents.

The tree with lots of gifts underneath

Family picture! There is actually a better picture of Leah, but Tim isn't in it. I think that calls for a bit of photoshop magic to make the best picture!

First up was stockings for Cam and Leah

A book for Leah

Cameron surveying his haul

Leah got tired of stockings and headed over to the present pile. In order to find the best gift, she personally taste-tested each one.

Smiley Leah

She was smiling and making funny faces because Uncle Paul was blowing in her face. She thought it was hilarous!

Nice face, Uncle Matt!

After opening a maze/tracing book from Uncle Matt and Gina, Cameron gives them a big hug!

What cute kiddos!

Leah, back looking for another present. She is drawn in by the shiny silver one in the front!

Hello, Santa Cameron!

Santa Cameron doesn't care if he can't see the present, as long as he can open it!

Santa Cameron is also a wild man opening presents!

Leah spots a small and delicious piece of wrapping paper

Here Leah, let me help you

Angela and Paul

What a surprise, Poppa got a book for Christmas!

Gina is excited to get new hockey gloves. Now she doesn't have to wear Matt's stinky old ones!

Leah gets a special plate to use at Nana and Poppa's house

Cameron helping Leah with another gift. What a good big brother (even if he is doing it because he wants to open more presents)!!

Kristin, very excited to get Edward and Jacob sweettarts!

Cameron with one of his favorite gifts

Mom with her gift from us, wine glasses in the pattern she likes

Cameron beating up Uncle Matt

Leah tasting her gift from Uncle Paul and Aunt Angela

Are we bad parents because we let our baby chew on a dog toy? We don't think so, we figure that Leah is just double-checking to make sure the dog toy will be fun for her cousin Riley!

Mom with her three Sugar Bear ornaments. She mentioned in passing to Matt that she didn't hang up her one Sugar Bear ornament (which usually had a place of honor on the tree when us kids helped her decorate) this year. You would think that Mom would know better than that... since she didn't hang up one ornament, now she gets four of them!

This was the year of funny gifts from Matt and Gina. They got us the World's Largest Gummy Bear. It is a spectacular 4 pound gummy bear.

So excited to get Glee Season 1!

The clowns from Omi's apparently can travel because they got Paul and Angela more gifts at Mom and Dad's. They got a clown ornament and coffee mug. What lucky kids!

Mama got a hockey bag. Cameron thought it was great and dove right in.

Where did he go?

Hiding inside

Cameron LOVED playing in the hockey bag and spent a ton of time in it. He even asked for a pillow and blanket so he could go to sleep in the hockey bag.

What happened to everyone?

Hello, Uncle Paul, what are you doing?

Cameron decides to join in the fun and pile up with everyone

Time to wake up and play with trains

Back to sleep, what funny boys!

Christmas at Grandma and Grandpa's

On Christmas Day, we went over to Grandma and Grandpa's house to open gifts first. It was just us and Grandma and Grandpa so it was a bit quieter than usual. We opened our gifts over there first, then headed over to Uncle Jim and Aunt Jill's to meet up with everyone else.

Opening up stockings - Leah got a little doll

She tasted the doll and found it to her liking!

Cameron opened his stocking - he was excited to find an orange in there

Leah opening a gift

Yummm, these are tasty fingers

One of Cameron's gifts was a really nice handmade sweater. Grandma started making it for him and then her eyesight got worse, so she wasn't able to finish it. She had someone help her finish it (Grandma, help me out here, who was it who finished it?). It is very cute and has adorable tractor buttons. Cameron really likes it and put it right on.

What a handsome boy!

In the early afternoon we headed over to Uncle Jim and Aunt Jill's. We spent the rest of the day there, eating, opening gifts and hanging out. Leah was being a little fussy so I put her into a box. Turned out, she really liked sitting in there!

Kelly checking out a present with Paul, Angela and Aunt Jen in the background

Hellloooooo Bridget!

Cameron opening a present, Leah still in the box

Cameron and Daddy

Miss Leah, still very happy in the box. Also, check out the bow on her head - so cute!

Hello Mama, are you taking my picture?

What a cute boy!

Picture of all of the grandchildren and great-grandchildren who were there at Christmas: Matt, Paul and Kristin behind the couch; Joe, Maddy, Patrick, Cameron, Bridget, Leah, Maggie and Kelly

Cam Cutes: Christmas Gift Giving

We interrupt these regularly scheduled picture-filled Christmas posts for a Cam Cute, before I forgot to post about it!

For Christmas this year, we asked Cameron if he wanted to get his own presents for Mama and Daddy. He said yes and said he thought that we would like Buzz Lightyear. We explained to him that when buying a gift for someone, you think about what they would want or what they would like. He pondered on that one and went on his way.

A couple weeks later, he went up to Tim and told him that he knew what he wanted to get for Mama. He said that he wanted to get Mama an umbrella, because mine was broken. Tim actually didn't know what Cam was talking about because he didn't know that my umbrella was broken, but Cameron remembered from summer and fall that whenever it rained when I was picking them up from school, I had to hunch under my umbrella because the lock to hold it open was broken. He remembered back those months and came up with a great idea of something that I really needed and wanted. After much deliberation he picked one out for me, and it is perfect!

About that same time, he also told me that he knew what he wanted to get for Daddy. He said "I have comfy pajamas, Leah has comfy pajamas and Mama has comfy pajamas, but Daddy doesn't." Tim does have PJ pants, but none are the fleece/flannel kind that Cameron defines as "comfy". So he asked to get comfy pants for Daddy. He picked out some nice, soft plaid flannel pants that are really nice and that Tim loves.

We were blown away but how thoughtful he was, taking his time to think about what we would want and then, out of the blue without prompting, telling both Tim and I when he knew what he wanted to buy. He helped us both pick out the gifts for the other parent, thinking about what colors and styles we would like. We are so proud of our sweet little monkey!

Christmas at Omi and Opa's

After having Christmas at our house, we drove up to Rochester to celebrate Christmas with the rest of the family. We spent the afternoon and night of Christmas Eve with the Holzs. It started out with the longest Christmas Mass on the face of the planet (so long, in fact, that people were coming in for the next Mass before we even left!). Amazingly, the kids were pretty good. Leah got antsy towards the end and Cameron spent most of Mass going back and forth between various laps, but overall they were very well behaved.

After Mass was over, we all went to Omi and Opa's house. First up was appetizers and happy hour, followed soon after by dinner. Cameron was pretty excited that he got to sit in the family room with all of the kids, rather than with Mama and Daddy in the dining room. Leah got to sit with the adults and enjoyed her Christmas dinner of baby food, Puffs, Mum Mums and some mashed potatoes. After dinner we opened Christmas presents.

Leah with Omi

Cameron spent a lot of time sitting on Joe's lap, it was so cute.

All of the boy cousins - Paul, Nick, Ben, Cameron, Joe, Jason, Matt and Michael (well, half of him)

Leah and Uncle Randy reading and snuggling together

Cam snu

Cameron and Leah opening presents with Uncle Randy

Leah showing off her new outfit

Cam was SO EXCITED to get the Hess truck (and airplane). He loves them!

Cam also helped Mama open her present.

Paul gave Ed presents this year. One of Ed's gift was a very special t-shirt. This is Ed's reaction when he first opened it and saw the shirt.

Showing off his shirt - it says "Dancin' Fool" and has the hilarious picture of Ed from Paul and Angela's wedding, dancing to Shout!

Opa opening one of his presents

Amanda is looking cute in the foreground, but if you notice in the background, Jason is balancing a beer bottle on his head. Such talent!

Angela laughing at one of her gifts

Paul got a gift from a mystery person. What could it be?

Paul is obviously frightened or traumatized by his gift

Paul's gift - an awesome shirt with a picture of the clowns that Paul was afraid of when he was growing up (and, let's be real... that he is still afraid of).

Cameron, ready for bed and snuggling a bit with Uncle Randy

Leah: Eight Months Old!

Miss Leah turned eight months old yesterday. She has had quite a month - she learned so much and did so many new things! Her sweet disposition has stayed the same, lucky for us. She has gotten a lot more giggly this month, and especially thinks that Cameron is hilarious. Pretty much anything he does, she thinks is amazing. It is so sweet!


Leah really enjoyed the holidays. She really loved having lots of people to play with and hold her. She didn't really think much of opening presents, other than when she got a piece of wrapping paper off and put it into her mouth. She does like her new toys, lots of fun stuff to play with!


We weighed Leah today and she is 17.6 pounds, so she has definitely grown this month. She has been eating lots of new things. She is on Stage 2 baby food and eats pretty good overall. She has tried most of the fruits and veggies and now is on to the mixes like Pear Blackberry and Banana Strawberry Granola. They are actually pretty tasty and see likes them. She also loves her baby snacks like Mum Mums (rice crackers), Puffs and Yogurt Melts.

The most exciting thing for food has been that Leah has started eating real food! She has tried a few fruits like apple, pear and grape (tiny pieces, of course!). She has had some bread items like tiny bits of roll, bread and muffins. She has had mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes. The last couple days, Leah has started to eat some meat! She had chicken a few days ago, and today she had a bit of turkey and sausage. She really is loving real food, so we are excited to give her more. She doesn't have any teeth yet though, so our choices might be a bit limited for a while.

Leah still doesn't sleep through the night (poor Mama!) but is still very easy when she does get up. All she wants to do is nurse a bit, then she is right back to sleep. It is so easy, I can practically do it in my sleep! She probably could sleep through the night if we really worked on it, so maybe that will be Leah's New Year resolution!

Leah has become a crawling machine in the last month. She can get from one place to another quickly. Ever since Leah has been a tiny baby, we knew that she is super curious. She is definitely proving it with her crawling - she is all over the place, investigating the world. She has very keen eyesight and spots the tiniest little things on the floor (and of course, tries to immediately put them in her mouth!). She goes all over the place, chasing her toys, Cam's toys, and Cameron.



Leah can also wave bye bye now, and says something that sounds an awful lot like "Bye Bye" when she does it. It is so cute! Here is a video of Leah playing with Mama and waving at the end. If you listen really closely, you can hear Leah say Bye Bye towards the end.